{"id":601966,"date":"2026-02-11T18:33:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:33:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.visitharju.ee\/?post_type=visitestonia&#038;p=601966"},"modified":"2026-03-30T08:38:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:38:34","slug":"st-matthias-church-in-harju-madise","status":"publish","type":"visitestonia","link":"https:\/\/www.visitharju.ee\/en\/st-matthias-church-in-harju-madise\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Matthias&#8217; Church in Harju-Madise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The high belltower of <strong>St. Matthias&#8217; Church in Harju-Madise<\/strong>, which was built in the 15th\u201318th centuries, doubles as a lighthouse for Pakri Bay.<\/p>\n<p>According to a legend, the church was built by a Captain Matthias who was rescued after being shipwrecked. The legend is confirmed by the location of the church\u00a0\u2013 it stands right on the escarpment on the shore, the main door faces the sea, and a carved sun disc, that has been often mistaken for a helm of a ship, stands on the abat-voix of the pulpit (1784).<\/p>\n<p>A memorial to Bengt Gottfried Forselius, who founded Estonian public schools, stands near the church, marking his birth place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":512769,"parent":0,"template":"","visitestonia-kategooria":[33791,33786],"class_list":["post-601966","visitestonia","type-visitestonia","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","visitestonia-kategooria-architecture-and-history","visitestonia-kategooria-history-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>St. Matthias&#039; Church in Harju-Madise | Visit Harju<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.visitharju.ee\/en\/st-matthias-church-in-harju-madise\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St. Matthias&#039; Church in Harju-Madise | Visit Harju\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The high belltower of St. Matthias&#8217; Church in Harju-Madise, which was built in the 15th\u201318th centuries, doubles as a lighthouse for Pakri Bay. 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